Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Quotes about Advertising

Advertising is of the very essence of democracy. An election goes on every minute of the business day across the counters of hundreds of thousands of stores and shops where the customers state their preferences and determine which manufacturer and which product shall be the leader today, and which shall lead tomorrow.

Bruce Barton, US author, advertising executive (1886-1967)

If you make a product good enough the public will make a path to your door, says the philosopher. But if you want the public in sufficient numbers, you would better construct a highway. Advertising is that highway.

William Randolph Hearst, US newspaper magnate (1863-1951)

Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

Samuel Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

Samuel Johnson, British poet, lexicographer (1709-1784)

In our factory, we make lipstick. In our advertising, we sell hope.

Charles Revlon, US businessman (1906-1975)

The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men – the man he is and the man he wants to be.

William Feather, US author, publisher (1889-1981)

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture – and forget that merchandise must be sold.

James Randolph Adams, US advertising executive (1898-1956)

When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.

David Ogilvy, US advertising executive (1911-1999)

It is not the purpose of the ad or commercial to make the reader or listener say, ‘My, what a clever ad.’ It is the purpose of advertising to make the reader or listener say, ‘I believe I’ll buy one when I’m shopping tomorrow.’

Morris Hite, US advertising guru, author (1910-1983)

We want consumers to say, ‘That’s a hell of a product’ instead of, ‘That’s a hell of an ad.’

Leo Burnett, US advertising executive (1891-1971)

The product that will not sell without advertising will not sell profitably with advertising.

Albert Lasker, US businessman, father of modern advertising (1880-1952)

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.

Edgar Watson Howe, US editor, author, essayist (1853-1937)

The business that considers itself immune to the necessity for advertising sooner or later finds itself immune to business.

Derby Brown, US advertising executive (1883-??)

Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn’t have to advertise it.

Will Rogers, US actor, humorist (1879-1935)

Will Rogers

The best ad is a good product.

Alan H Meyer, US academic, business author

The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.

Leo Burnett, US advertising executive (1891-1971)

The trouble with us in America isn’t that the poetry of life has turned into prose, but that it has turned into advertising copy.

Louis Kronenberger, US critic (1904-1980)

The art of advertisement, after the American manner, has introduced into all our lives such a lavish use of superlatives that no standard of value whatever is intact.

Wyndham Lewis, British author, painter (1882-1957)

Advertising in the final analysis should be news. If it is not news it is worthless.

Adolph S Ochs, US newspaper publisher (1858-1935)

Asked about the power of advertising in research surveys, most agree that it works, but not on them.

Eric Clark, US advertising guru, author

I know half of the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half.

John Wanamaker, US merchant, retail executive (1838-1922)

The value of an advertisement is in inverse ratio to the number of times it has been used.

About Me

In order, I am a family man, a northerner, and a writer. Scarily it is over forty years since BBC Schools Radio gave me my first commission, and I have been writing as a part-time freelance ever since, mainly plays for the Beeb, and for education publishers. I got involved also with writing questions and formats for various TV and radio quiz shows. It's only in the last few years that I have been able to write full time, and in that period have produced: a collection of short stories 'We Never Had It So Good'; a thriller novel '11:59', which reached the semi-final of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2010; an historical novel 'Mr Stephenson's Regret', an Amazon semi-finalist in 2011; a psychological mystery 'As Close As You Are To Me'; and a micro-fiction collection 'HE and SHE: 1000 stories in 1000 tweets'. I also do readings and workshops.